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Welsh Liberal Democrat AM Peter Black said the credit for forcing the Welsh Government to change its mind on council chief executives' pay should not belong to any one of the opposition parties. He said it was because all three stood firm.

When all three opposition parties work together, we can force the Welsh Labour Government to improve legislation for the better of Wales. It would be quite churlish of one political party to claim ‘victory’ on this issue. The three opposition parties work well together, and indeed with the government, and we hope this will continue. Curbing excessive pay was a priority for us and we are glad that the Welsh Labour Government has listened to us.

The Welsh Government recognises that the pay of local authority chief executives is an issue which needs to be determined in an open and transparent way and there needs to be effective mechanisms in place to ensure this happens. Listening to concerns over this matter, we are currently considering options for this at Stage 3 of the Local Government Democracy (Wales) Bill.